Doll

Elena Scavini's own childhood doll inspired her Lenci doll creations. First working on her dolls in war-torn Italy of 1917, she recalled happier days of growing up in Austria. She had favored a simple doll made of wood and rags over a beautiful porcelain doll. Of the handmade doll, she remembered: "My doll was nothing, and therefore she could become everything. She was different every time I held her in my arms." She created her dolls to make children laugh in bad times, and she hoped to encourage in them the imaginative play she remembered of her youth.